Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [476]
Managerial fires are caused by three major reasons:
1. Lack of knowledge—the subordinates don’t know how to function in certain situations. The knowledge resides with the manager or it is within his or her reach. This is caused by the manager’s lack of time to transfer the knowledge and knowhow to their lieutenants and, in some cases, by lack of willingness of the lieutenants to learn from their bosses.
2. Lack of authority—the lieutenant has the responsibility but lacks the authority. Many times the system restricts the level of authority through tight policies and procedures.
3. Lack of confidence—the people who are supposed to take the necessary actions feel incapable of performing them and come to their managers to do the actions on their behalf. Many times people fear that they will be punished if something goes wrong while they are trying to solve a burning problem for the company.
The nature of the fire-fighting problem is that the problem must be attended to once it is raised. The manager must come up with an immediate solution and put out the fire. However, we have to approach the fire-fighting problem with the view that it is a manifestation of a system failure. It is beneficial to investigate the causes of the fire and take initiatives to remove them. Therefore, after the fire is dealt with, it is recommended that the manager examine the fire using the Cloud method to develop a solution to prevent this fire from reoccurring in the future by addressing the cause of the fire.
Step 2: Write a storyline.
Example:
I am the Customer Service Manager. Yesterday the person responsible for shipping products, who reports to me, came and asked for my help. There was a shipment for a particular customer that was due to ship but the delivery location was not clear. The Customer Account Manager for this particular customer, who also reports to me, had been unavailable for 3 days.
I had to call the customer several times, and after some hassle, I got the information and gave it to the Shipping Clerk. Then I got back to my other work.
In this incident, the Shipping Clerk wants to perform his job properly as expected. We can assume that in the past when orders were shipped late this person was confronted and challenged—even when it was not his fault. He could have shrugged his shoulders and done nothing until the account manager came back. However, the Shipping Clerk cares! Hence, he goes to the Customer Service Manager and informs him about the problem.
The manager solved the problem by calling the customer himself. The customer was unhappy about the call. This problem was solved for now, but there is nothing to prevent the same problem from happening again in the future. This can be a good reason for the manager to investigate it using the Cloud method.
Step 3: Build the Cloud.
The sequence for building the Fire-Fighting Cloud is different from the previous two types because the trigger for the Cloud is different. For the Inner Dilemma Cloud and the Day-to-Day Conflict Cloud, the problem itself appears on the Cloud. The conflict is between two different tactics: D and D′. Once we write them, we can proceed to the B and C and eventually A.
In the fire-fighting scenario, the problem triggers the Cloud but is not recorded on the Cloud itself. We deal with the problem because it is extremely important. That means that the problem is jeopardizing the objective A and especially one of the needs. Therefore, the entry point to the Cloud is the need that is endangered. From there we continue to fill up the boxes according to a logical flow and questions in Table 24-4.
Example of building the Cloud of the shipping problem as seen by the Customer Services Manager:
[B]: Jeopardized need: Secure on-time shipment to customer. If we do nothing, the shipping details will not be obtained before the Account Manager is back and by then it